Worn

How to spell worn

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce worn

What does worn mean?

1. adjectiveDamaged, thinned, or made shabby by long and repeated use.
2. verbThe past participle of 'wear': having had something on the body as clothing.

Worn in a sentence

• adjective

  The carpet on the stairs was badly worn after twenty years.

• verb

  That jacket had been worn to every winter meeting for years.

• adjective

  He replaced the worn tyres before the long drive north.

• verb

  The ring had been worn on her left hand since the wedding.

Where does worn come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past participle of the verb 'wear', which descends from the Old English werian, meaning 'to carry on the body' or 'to clothe oneself'. That verb belonged to a class of strong and weak forms in Germanic, and over centuries the participle settled into the irregular shape 'worn' rather than a regular 'weared'. The sense gradually widened from simply 'carried as clothing' to 'rubbed down or damaged by long use', because clothes and shoes that are constantly carried about eventually fray and thin. The word shares a Germanic ancestry with words for guarding and defending, since clothing once protected the body. Its sound is identical to 'warn' for most speakers, which is the spelling trap: 'worn' belongs to wear and shows the o of that family, while 'warn' (to caution) keeps an a.

How the word is built

• wor- (from Old English werian/weran, to wear or carry)
• -n (past participle ending)

Words that sound like worn

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• warn: To tell someone in advance of a possible danger, problem, or unwelcome outcome.